Category Archives: Reaching Out

This Week’s News: St Nicholas August 5-15, 2010

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I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats…
bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
Your new moons and your appointed
festivals my soul hates…
When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen…
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil, learn to do good;
seek justice, rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.

— from the Book of Isaiah

August 14: sample Saturday worship and/or a movie

Join your fellow parishioners on Saturday, August 14 to get a sneak peak at the Saturday liturgy and for dinner and a movie.

Worship begins at 4:30.

A light dinner follows immediately — just bring yourself, nothing else is necessary. Our movie — to be announced! — will begin about 6:15. Come for worship, dinner, and the movie — or for any part of the evening.

Launching the Saturday liturgy

Marketers say that it takes multiple “touches” to get someone to respond to an advertising initiative. That’s why we are going to visit the same 3,600 households nearest St. Nicholas three times with three different doorhangers in the month before we begin the new liturgy.

The distribution weekends are set for

  • August 21-22
  • August 28-29
  • September 11-12

Besides the leaflets, we are also putting together a very simple web site for the Saturday community. (It will also lead visitors to the main St. Nicholas site.)

It’s still under construction, but you are welcome to take a sneak peek. You’ll find it here.

An Important Bulletin

We are looking for some volunteers to format and copy the bulletin for the Saturday liturgy. The more people involved the easier it will be. (It is not necessary to attend the Saturday liturgy to take advantage of this opportunity.) If you are interested, please contact Mary Anne O’Rourke at mor1313@yahoo.com.

Reminders

Bread Bakers Arise !

As we prepare on September 18-19 to begin our new worship schedules of 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 10:00 am Sunday, we are planning to use baked bread for both of the services. We recently started to use a new recipe. It is easy to follow, and makes four loaves in one baking.

Baking a batch of communion bread is a wonderful — and easy — way to participate in the life of St. Nicholas. If you are interested in joining our team of volunteer bakers, please contact Hal Stratton

Gluten-free wafers…

are also available each Sunday for those with allergies to the wheat in our communion loaf.

Worship Schedules Changing In Fall

They will be Saturday at 4:30, Sunday at 10 beginning September 18.

Air-conditioned worship…

is available all summer in Holy Innocents Hall. We’ll also try to get outside if weather permits.

Must Be Present (At 10 AM Sunday) To Win

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One Bread, One Body: News From St Nicholas July 4-10

Naaman Washing Clean

Naaman Washing Clean

But his servants approached and said to him,
“Father, if the prophet
had commanded you to do something difficult,
would you not have done it?
How much more,
when all he said t you was,
`Wash, and be clean’?”
So he went down and immersed himself
seven times in the Jordan,
according to the word of the man of God;
his flesh was restored like the flesh
of a young boy, and he was clean.
— from the Second Book of Kings

10 a.m. worship, drawing this Sunday

We begin our summer schedule this Sunday, July 4, with worship at 10 a.m. through the Labor Day weekend.
Also, those who participated in our worship survey — either on paper forms, or electronically — will have a chance to win a $25 gift certificate in a drawing that will be held that day. The only catch is that you must be present to win.

So, come, enjoy some special music — Paul Brouillette will be bringing his guitar — and a great Independence Day!

Bishop’s Committee report

Extended meeting held 27 June 2010
Present: Val Gruenwald, Pat Kalicki, Steve Raftery, Mary Anne O’Rourke, Paul Swanson, Jessica Tamaski, Manny Borg, Steve Martz
Not present: Bill Barlow, Karen Martin

The meeting focused on planning for the 2010-2011 program year. No official actions were taken. Here is a report on the areas discussed:

Opening week-end(s).

Our next Rummage Sale will be Saturday, September 11, with Sunday, September 12 as the “unofficial” opening of our program year.

The “Grand Opening” of the year will be the following weekend as we hold our first Saturday liturgy. Our primary means of publicity for that liturgy will be doorhangers that we will distribute over three weekends in August and September. The doorhangers will invite our neighbors to come and see St. Nicholas.

More evangelism

We also will be doing doorhangers again in November as we invite neighbors to join us for a celebration of the Feast of Nicholas. We will hold a community dinner as part of that celebration. Our intent is to take full advantage of our patron, St. Nicholas, considered by many to be the world’s most popular saint, and we will make this an annual event. The dinner and St. Nicholas celebration will be held on Saturday after worship. In 2011, we will inaugurate another annual evangelism event that will be focused on Sunday.

Having Fun

We agreed that one of the major strengths of our community is the genuine affection we have for one another. Unlike many parishes, we do not focus much on hot-button issues or differences. We want to build on, and celebrate, this strength. Denise Butera and Anna Stefaniak are working with Steve Martz to plan some social events, including a movie night in August. We also discussed a chili dinner this winter, which we may tie to the Super Bowl. Also discussed were International Dinners — think of it as a potluck on steroids — where we invite people to bring dishes they especially enjoy cooking, and that reflect their ethnic heritage.

Adult formation

The approach during 2010-11 will involve three elements. First, the contemporary issues/reading group that Steve Gruenwald leads will continue.

Second, we will have Fall and early Spring Saturday/ Sunday adult education series before or after the liturgies. One series will focus on biblical subjects, including Major Figures of the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as infancy and passion narratives. The other will center on spirituality subjects.

Finally, we will inaugurate Fall and Spring midweek series with outside presenters. As we do not usually draw well during midweek, we will also be inviting neighboring churches from the Elgin Deanery of our Diocese, and from other denominations in Elk Grove Village. The Fall series, on “Courage,” will be led by Jeffrey Ediger, an independent scholar and former college professor who has taught this and other courses at the Church of the Atonement, where he is a member.

Children’s formation

We had an extended discussion of formation, and agreed the Val, Jessica, and Pat will head a team that will recommend an approach — or approaches — that will more effectively meet the needs of our children and their families. The sentiment was for an integrated program that involves the children in the liturgy, service, and learning.

LGBT

We agreed that our LGBT outreach needs reinvigoration. Steve Martz will work with LGBT members to develop a mix of social, movie, and discussion events during the coming year.

Sunday liturgy

We reviewed the survey results that have been received so far. We were heartened that the majority of those responding will continue to worship on Sunday. (Heartened because the point of the Saturday liturgy is to attract new people to St. Nicholas.) At the same time, we noted that it appears the Saturday liturgy will draw enough of our Sunday participants to make it difficult to continue two Sunday liturgies. We agreed unanimously that, if the numbers continue in the final stage of the survey to be what they are to date, it would make most sense to hold one liturgy on Sunday.

SEE YOU SOON

by Father Steve Martz

I’m going to be taking the next couple of weeks off, returning to work on the evening of the 10th when Carla and I host a party for the choir and our music director to thank them all for a wonderful year of music, and for everything they do to make St. Nicholas such a special place. And they do quite a lot — as I was reminded again this past Sunday as I listed to Tim Black and Mary Fletcher-Gomez sing a wonderful anthem.

It’s going to be a lay-low vacation for me, as I read, rest, exercise, and do a few things around the house. If anything comes up during this time that requires a priest, please contact Manny.

See you soon,

— Steve

PS, as always, Let me know what you think… about whatever is on your mind (and I’ll respond after the 10th).

Food Pantry Usage Up, Donations Down

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St Nicholas’ next Supplemental Food Pantry hours will be Wednesday, July 7 at 430pm at the parish house. Fresh veggies from our garden soon, next food drive this fall!

‘It takes a lot to live in this life right now’ | wisconsinrapidstribune.com | Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune

Some churches have ongoing collections, but donations tend to decrease during the summer months. The pantry benefits from organized drives, such as those conducted by postal workers, Boy Scouts and the Ho-Chunk casino.

“This is an ongoing thing, and truly, we are so blessed in this community and this area, because we receive tremendous support from food donations and monetary donations so we can purchase the things we need to purchase,” Steele said.

Not all needs are covered by the food pantry. Kyle Ruud oversees the Essentials Pantry at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, which helps families in need with non-food products, such as toilet paper, personal hygiene items and some household supplies.

“At the present time, we have about 800 families registered,” she said. “We see about 120 to 130 persons in the four hours we are open.”

Open Wednesday afternoons, the pantry will close July 7 until September to restructure its system.

It’s difficult to run an all-volunteer, all-donations food pantry program, and the dedicated people who do this work deserve huge kudos. At our own pantry, we see more families each week in need of a little extra help. Now that employment benefits may be running out for many, it may become more of a necessity for Elk Grove area families to know where they might be able to drop in on the first and third Wednesdays to pick up food and non-food items (paper products, personal care products) that are not covered by food stamps, and we’re open after normal work hours so that working families have someplace to try when they can’t get to conventional pantries during those times.

The next big food drive will be in the fall, so Elk Grove families may find our door hangers and grocery bags during that time. We ask you to think of your neighbors who might be struggling to put food on the table for their families, and please give generously. We have been blessed, too, with unexpected large donations from commercial food operations, and if your business can donate non-perishable food items, personal care products, cleaning products, or other non-food items that families and singles can’t buy with food stamps, please consider donating surplus (but not expired) items. Contact Fr. Manny Borg via the church (or send email to info@onebreadonebody.org with “Attention Fr. Manny Borg” or “Attention Food Pantry” in the subject line.